Residual stress effects in stress-corrosion cracking

This paper describes a wide variety of residual stress effects in stress-corrosion cracking (SCC) of metallic materials on the basis of previous research of the author on high-strength steel in the form of hot-rolled bars and cold-drawn wires for prestressed concrete. It is seen that internal residual stress fields in the material play a very important-if not decisive-role in the SCC behavior of any engineering material, especially residual stresses generated near the free surface or in the vicinity of a crack tip.